RAL colour chart

How to use this RAL colour chart

1. Look up a RAL number. Type the four digits, such as 7016, and the colour opens with its name, swatch and screen values. You can also type part of a name, such as anthracite, ivory or blue.
2. Find the RAL for a colour you already have. Type or paste a hex code (#1E3A5F) or RGB values (30, 58, 95), or pick a colour with the swatch button. The tool lists the closest RAL Classic colours, measures how far each one is and tells you whether the difference will show.
3. Browse the full chart. Filter it by range, switch between swatches and a table, and click any colour for its details. In the table view, a click on a hex, RGB or CMYK value copies it.
4. Print it or save it. The print button lays the chart out as a table with all the values, which you can print or save as a PDF from your browser.

Search for a RAL color chart or a RAL colour chart and you land on the same 216 colours: the spelling changes between the US and the UK, the numbers do not.

What RAL colours are

RAL is a colour standard from Germany used for paint, powder coating and plastics. Each colour has a number and a name, such as RAL 7016 Anthracite grey. A manufacturer, a painter and a client can all order RAL 7016 and expect the same colour, without posting samples back and forth. That is why window frames, garage doors, railings, cladding, signs and shopfront panels are usually specified by their RAL number.

The range almost everyone means is RAL Classic: 216 colours, according to RAL gGmbH, the organisation that runs the system. RAL also publishes two larger ranges, RAL Design System plus and RAL Effect, which bring the total to more than 2,500 shades. When a supplier asks for “the RAL” without saying more, they mean a RAL Classic number, the four digits in this chart.

How to read a RAL number

The first digit tells you the colour range. The other three only set the order inside it and say nothing about the colour: RAL 9010 and RAL 9016 are two very similar whites, and 10 and 16 do not describe that.

There are gaps in the numbering because colours have been withdrawn and added over the years. A number that is not in this chart, such as RAL 1008, is not a current RAL Classic colour.

RAL Classic, RAL Design and RAL Effect

RAL Design System plus uses seven-digit codes built from hue, lightness and chroma, for example RAL 210 50 15, and is aimed at architects and designers who need finer steps. RAL Effect adds solid and metallic shades, the metallic ones marked with an M. Neither is in this chart. If a specification gives a seven-digit code, it is a RAL Design colour, not a RAL Classic one.

Popular RAL whites and greys

In Google's keyword data for the UK and the US, the single RAL numbers people look up most are RAL 9004 (a black), 1013, 7015, 7016 and 5002. The whites are searched mostly with a name or a product added, such as RAL 9016 traffic white or RAL 9003 paint. Most of the doubt is about telling near neighbours apart, so here are the values and the closest colours for the ones most often confused.

RAL 9016 Traffic white and RAL 9010 Pure white

The two whites most often confused. On screen the difference is ΔE 1.9, which you only see with the two side by side. RAL 9016 is the cooler, cleaner white; RAL 9010 is slightly warmer. If a supplier quotes a RAL white without a number, ask which of the two they mean.

RAL 9003 Signal white

On screen, the lightest and most neutral white in RAL Classic. Next to RAL 9016 the gap is ΔE 4.1, clearly visible side by side.

RAL 9002 Grey white

A soft white with a grey cast, darker and less bright than the whites above. Next to RAL 9010 Pure white the gap is ΔE 5.7, so the two read as different whites at first glance.

RAL 7016 Anthracite grey

A very dark grey with a hint of blue, often specified for window frames, doors, gates and cladding. RAL 7021 Black grey is darker and more neutral, close to black; the gap between the two is ΔE 4.5. If the colour will sit in full sun on a facade, compare real samples outdoors, because daylight changes how dark greys read.

RAL 1013 Oyster white and RAL 9001 Cream

Despite its name, Oyster white sits in the yellow and beige range: it is an off-white with a clear beige cast. RAL 9001 Cream is lighter and closer to white. They are the first two to compare when a brief asks for an off-white, a magnolia or an eggshell tone.

RAL whites, greys and blacks

There is no single RAL white or RAL grey. Whites run from warm to cool, the greys drift towards blue, green or beige, and some of the most requested whites sit in the 1000 range. Click any of them to open it in the chart.

Whites and off-whites

• RAL 9010Pure white#F7F9EF
• RAL 9016Traffic white#F7FBF5
• RAL 9003Signal white#FFFFFF
• RAL 9001Cream#EFEBDC
• RAL 9002Grey white#DDDED4
• RAL 9018Papyrus white#CFD3CD
• RAL 9012Clean room white#FFFDE6
• RAL 1013Oyster white#E3D9C6
• RAL 1015Light ivory#E6D2B5

Light greys

• RAL 7035Light grey#CBD0CC
• RAL 7047Telegrey 4#CFD0CF
• RAL 9018Papyrus white#CFD3CD
• RAL 7044Silk grey#BDBDB2
• RAL 7038Agate grey#B4B8B0
• RAL 7032Pebble grey#B9B9A8
• RAL 7040Window grey#9DA3A6
• RAL 9006White aluminium#A5A8A6

Dark greys

• RAL 7016Anthracite grey#373F43
• RAL 7021Black grey#2E3234
• RAL 7024Graphite grey#474A50
• RAL 7026Granite grey#374447
• RAL 7015Slate grey#51565C
• RAL 7022Umbra grey#4B4D46
• RAL 7043Traffic grey B#4E5451
• RAL 7011Iron grey#555D61

Blacks

• RAL 9005Jet black#131516
• RAL 9011Graphite black#1C1C1C
• RAL 9004Signal black#2E3032
• RAL 9017Traffic black#2A2D2F
• RAL 8022Black brown#211F20

RAL 9005 Jet black has the darkest screen value in the range. RAL 9011, 9004 and 9017 are slightly lighter blacks, and the gap between 9005 and 9011 on screen is ΔE 2.6. The 38 greys of the 7000 range are the largest group in RAL Classic, and there are more greys outside it: the two aluminium shades, RAL 9006 and 9007, which are metallic in the original, and the pearl greys RAL 9022 and 9023.

How to find the RAL number of a colour

From a hex code or RGB values

Type the code into the search box above. The colour is converted to CIE Lab, a colour space built around human vision, and compared with all 216 RAL Classic colours using CIEDE2000, the colour difference formula of the International Commission on Illumination (CIE). The result is the RAL with the smallest difference, shown as ΔE (delta E), plus the next closest ones in order.

Do not expect a low ΔE every time. With 216 colours, RAL Classic covers only a small part of what a screen can show. We tested 20,000 random screen colours against the chart: only 3.5% had a RAL within ΔE 2, only 25.9% had one within ΔE 5, and the typical distance was ΔE 7.5. When the nearest RAL is far away, the tool says so. The fix is then either a colour from a larger range, such as RAL Design System plus, or a paint mixed to a sample.

That is also why a brand colour should not be chosen on screen in the hope of finding it later in a fan deck. Decide first where the brand has to appear, on screen, in print and on a building or a vehicle, and define the colour for all of them at once.

From a physical sample

Hold the sample against a RAL fan deck in daylight, out of direct sun, with the card lying on the sample rather than next to it. If you do not have a fan deck, many paint suppliers can read a sample with a colour measuring device and give you the nearest RAL number or a paint mix.

From a photo or a logo file

Take the hex code from the file with a colour picker, then paste it here. Expect a larger error with photos: the light, the camera and the compression all shift the colour. Use the result to decide which RAL cards to look at, not to place an order.

Why a RAL colour on screen is not the real colour

The hex values on this page are approximations in sRGB, the colour space of screens. RAL colours are defined by physical reference samples, and the binding references are those samples, not any screen value. Three things change what you see:

• The screen. Calibration, brightness and panel type make the same hex code look different on two monitors and two phones.
• The finish and the material. The same RAL in matt, satin or gloss, or on steel, timber or plastic, does not look the same.
• The light. Daylight, warm LED and fluorescent light all shift colour, especially greys and beiges.

Some colours no screen can show at all. The luminous colours, such as RAL 1026, 2005 and 3024, are fluorescent. The pearl colours, whose names start with Pearl, shimmer, and RAL 9006 and 9007 are metallic. The tool flags all of these. The CMYK values are a plain mathematical conversion with no print profile, so for printed matter ask your printer to convert the colour with the profile they use, and check a proof.

RAL, Pantone, CMYK and hex: which one to use

Each system belongs to a material. A colour that has to look the same everywhere needs a value in each of them.

A well-defined brand writes its colours down in all four, so the logo on the website, the business card and the shop sign is visibly the same colour. Converting between them is not automatic: each conversion needs a person to compare samples and pick the closest match the material allows. To check a screen colour for legibility, use the colour contrast checker. To build a set of screen colours around one, use the colour palette generator, and to write the values down for your team and suppliers, the brand guidelines template.

Data source, licence and trademark

Data. The colour names and hex values come from the List of RAL colours on the English Wikipedia (revision of 16 August 2026), by its contributors, published under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. DEMARCA added the RGB and CMYK conversions and the colour matching. This chart is shared under the same licence: you may reuse it if you credit the source and share alike.

Trademark. RAL is a trademark of RAL gGmbH. DEMARCA is not affiliated with or endorsed by RAL, and this page is not an official RAL colour chart and does not replace one. For exact colours, use the official RAL products at ral-farben.de.

Sources